Games That Weren't^®

Back in the summer of 1985, Ritchie Brannan was trying to break into the games industry, and got a gig producing a game based on Fantastic Voyage for Ariolasoft.

Early on it was renamed to Braindeath, probably as Ariolasoft couldn’t get the licence or something along those lines.

As you’d expect, the aim of the game was to go around the body, fixing valves and going down veins to travel around and kill off germs and so on.

Ritchie suggests that there was colour cycling to give the sense of movement, and veins could split to give a choice of direction around the body. Art work was provided by Paul Smith (of Viz Design fame), and the game almost completed.

However, Ritchie suggests that they may have been holding off publishing until all platform conversions were complete (to combine marketing), and during that period – they decided to pull out of the UK market before the game could be completed.

In a strange twist, we showed Ritchie another Fantastic Yoyage themed game from around the same time that never saw release. Ritchie responded that the graphics were certainly the same as what he had for his development.

It seems that there was an earlier development that had been started, but likely abandoned, and graphics from that project were passed over to Paul Smith (who then tidied them up slightly and added more graphics for Ritchie to utilize). Ritchie was never provided any code as a starting point and was never aware of this earlier development.

Ritchie offers some hope that we may be able to see the game some day – and if he finds his work disks, will be posting them down to GTW to preserve (if they still read). This could be a very fantastic voyage in itself.

A short entry for a title which was mentioned by Andrew Braybrook in an interview with FREEZE64.

After finishing Intensity, Andrew started another game design – but it wasn’t really shaped into a game or anything. A title sequence was set up, and the game was going to take place on a hexagonal grid.

However, the draw of the 16-bits was proving too strong, and so work was halted and focus shifted to other platforms. This particular game design was never taken any further, not even on another platform.

Thanks to contributor ‘Anonymous’, we learn that the game was actually mentioned in Swedish computer magazine – Datomagazin in 1988, where it was said:

“Andrew is unsure of the future after Intensity. He has a few projects going, but he doesn’t really know what to do with them. At the moment, Andrew’s screen is occupied by a hexagonal grid with little creatures running around in them. What Andrew would like to do most of all right now is a game for a 16-bit machine.”

Andrew has suggested that there might be a disk lurking around somewhere, but it isn’t known if he would be open to preserving the demo and showing people. We will have to watch this space.

A short entry for yet another Mastertronic game which never saw the light of day.

This was a game based on the Pulse Warrior codebase, which according to developer Simon Price, “involved knocking robots off some sort of high rise – clearing a floor at the time”.

The final versions were delivered to Mastertronic for both the C64 and ZX Spectrum, and it was paid for – but then when taken over by Virgin, they axed both versions.

It would be amazing to find both full versions, so hopefully Simon can shed more light if anything has survived.

Not sure how we managed to miss this one, but at some point there were plans for a Commodore 64 game based on the UK soap EastEnders, to be published by Macsen Software around 1987 time. The game eventually saw release on the ZX Spectrum and was panned by all for being a terrible game. C64 users were seemingly lucky and didn’t see anything released.

The question is whether anything was ever started at all, and does anything still survive of the game? It may not be great, but we’re still curious! Perhaps the game was being developed by Huw Ford, who had done some other titles by Macsen? That was our initial thought anyway.

Contributor Professor Chaos found a link to the game via Julie Dunn’s archived website, which suggests that she could well have done music for Macsen. Sadly nothing has surfaced of the music at this stage – but if the game can be found, there might be some long lost music from Julie to be recovered too.

Interestingly, the Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro platforms also have their versions missing too. So what happened overall? Was it the poor reception of the Spectrum version that killed the others?

Shortly after adding this entry, contributor Edwin Drost found a competition in Software Choice Guide – December 1986, where you win a copy of the game on the C64. Also, the advert actually features a boxed edition of the Commodore 64 game! (See scans for blown up version of the case).

Surely this must have got quite far along? Did it even see a very limited release perhaps? Gaz Spence found via MobyGames that Macsen Software closed in 1987 after owing around £350,000. It seems most likely that the C64, Amstrad and Beeb editions got caught up because of that.

On the ZX Spectrum edition, there are no credits apart from creators named as “Towers Associates”. The only game it seems they ever did was Eastenders.

Well, an Anthony Roberts got in touch with GTW and informed us that he was part of a two man programming team. He confirmed that he was holed up in a Welsh hotel for about 3 weeks before Christmas, after being commissioned by Macsen to produce the game from scratch.

The second part of the team was a Paul Towers, who was the proprietor of Towers Associates. Anthony was part of a 3-man band involved in electronic product design and development for many kinds of customers.

Both were doing all the designing and coding of the game on an Apple Mac in assembly language, then downloading to their Z80 (Zilog) for compilation, and then onto the Spectrum or C64 target using debugging tools that they had to create from scratch. This was without any real knowledge of either platform.

That’s right – the same team were creating the C64 edition too – and it was all based off the same code base. Essentially, development work was a code porting exercise from the Z80 with all the “BIOS” stuff re-written. With this C64 edition though, a 3rd person was involved by the name of Derek Laws, one of Paul’s friends who had his own software company (of which we don’t know the name).

It was confirmed that Macsen going bust was indeed why the C64 edition (and Amstrad + BBC Micro editions) never saw the light of day. Macsen went bust just as EastEnders was released, meaning they sadly never saw a penny for their efforts.

The C64 edition had only got as far as a basic version working, but was nowhere near finished according to Anthony. When asked about the chances of recovering anything, it looked very bleak. Anthony also confirmed that they had no involvement on Amstrad or BBC Micro editions.

Anthony said there was no change of recovering anything from him and he no longer had anything. He also informed that Paul Towers and Derek Laws are sadly no longer with us, and he feels as a result that nothing has survived.

This would be Anthony’s first and last venture into game development – he felt it wasn’t really his thing, as he was involved in embedded software engineering, so doing this project was way out of his comfort zone. The fact they got something done in 3 weeks was quite a shock to them.

At the very least, we may find something of the music produced for the game – but it seems unlikely that much can now be saved. If you look at the ZX Spectrum version though, that is essentially what the C64 version would have been like.

Interestingly this game was 1 of 2 parts that were planned, with a 2nd part believed to have been a text adventure game. Anthony says that they had no involvement on part 2, but there was a spoof game called “Deadenders” released – could this have been originally intended as the “Part 2” game?

A short entry for a sequel to Sunrise Software’s Denny’s Quest, which was released in 1993. Thanks to contributors Ponponpox and Botowrap, we learn that a sequel was being offered via a small advert (which you can see in the scans).

Was this sequel ever started, and did anyone happen to get a copy from the offer? We believe that it would have been by the same programmer, and very likely using the same engine with different levels.

Further digging by DMX87 found a post an old newsgroup which suggested that the game was being sold as late as 1997. Further investigation found an advert in Commodore World magazine in issue 21/1997, where Denny’s Quest was advertised once more. However, this time – Denny’s Quest 2 is listed as Denny’s World (or at least it seems right to assume!)

So it seems Denny’s Quest 2 was delayed for some reason, and then was to be resurrected as Denny’s World. Did it ever finally see completion? Did anyone get a copy?

DMX87 finally got hold of the author in 2023, and did an interview with them – in the interview, Philip is asked about the sequel and responds:

“I was planning on a sequel(s), but since I got practically no interest in the original, obviously there was no reason to proceed with it.”

As a result, and although advertised – it means that there is nothing of the game to find – so therefore it is a case closed!

It seems that the sequel to Design Design’s classic The Hall of the Things was intended for release on the Commodore 64 too!

Thanks to contributor Einar, we learn that Design Design had an advert which listed the C64 edition as being now available for Amstrad and C64. But what happened to the C64 edition?

Graham Stafford was behind the sequel – but was quick to confirm that the development never got off the ground for a variety of reasons. As a result, there is nothing to recover – unless someone else started their own development.

Looking like a case closed already!